Young Marine from Plymouth killed days after arriving in Iraq

Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Burgess, a 2001 graduate of Plymouth South High School, was killed Thursday in an attack on his convoy east of Fallujah, a town 30 miles west of Baghdad, where resistance to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq is particularly strong. Two other Marines were wounded.

A 20-year-old Marine from Plymouth has been killed just days after arriving in Iraq to join a battle he had survived illness and injury to fight, his family said.

Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Burgess, a 2001 graduate of Plymouth South High School, was killed Thursday in an attack on his convoy east of Fallujah, a town 30 miles west of Baghdad, where resistance to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq is particularly strong. Two other Marines were wounded.

Burgess, a military policeman, was killed by shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade or mortar fire. His family said he arrived in Iraq after refusing to disrupt his basic training in South Carolina after a bite from a poisonous spider caused his skin to be eaten away.

“He wanted to do whatever he had to do to stay in,” Sandy Burgess, Jeffrey’s aunt, said Friday night. “You could see in his face that he was so proud to be a Marine. We know he died doing what he loved, and in some ways I guess that makes it a little easier.”

Burgess, who had worked as a lobsterman in Plymouth during the summer, left for Kuwait on Feb. 12 and entered Iraq this month.

He was stationed with Marine Wing Support Squadron 373, based in Miramar, Calif. His unit provides helicopter support.

The young soldier grew up on Briggs Avenue in Manomet, where neighbors remembered him as a quiet, clean-cut kid who frequently played with other children in the neighborhood.

“He’s so young. He’s just a kid,” said Anne DeIvlio, her eyes filling with tears as she took in the news Friday. She lived next door to his family for several years. “I can’t believe this. My kids grew up with him,” she said.

His father, Scott Burgess, lives in Wareham and his mother, Michelle, lives in Barnstable. He also has a brother Jason, 26. They could not be reached for comment.

But his aunt, uncle and two cousins spoke Friday night about Burgess’ dedication to the military and desire to fight for his country. They said he was considering a career with the State Police or other law enforcement after returning home from the war.

Sandy Burgess said her nephew would not have regretted his death in battle. He would have been angry about it, she said, and frustrated that he didn’t get to fight longer and do more for fellow soldiers. But he wouldn’t have regretted his decision to be there.

In fact, she said, “he would have done it again.”

“We were told he didn’t die alone,” she added. “I don’t know what that means, whether others died with him or his friends were there for him. ... But I know that God was there and Jesus was there comforting him.”

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Jeffrey Burgess was the first serviceman killed in Fallujah since the Marines took over authority in the town and surrounding areas on Wednesday from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

On Friday, another Marine was killed in fighting in the city.

Fallujah, on the banks of the Euphrates River, is in the Sunni Triangle, where support for Saddam Hussein was strong and rebel attacks on American forces are frequent.

Witnesses said heavy gunfire and explosions erupted when Marines moved into the center of the city. In recent months, American troops have rarely ventured into the city’s downtown, one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq for the U.S. military.

Burgess signed up at the Marine recruiting office in Plymouth three years ago and joined the service on Jan. 2, 2002. He served in Japan for two years and was also in Germany briefly, his family said.

In high school, Burgess played in the marching and concert band for four years. He played in an Inaugural Band Festival on the Washington Mall during President Bush’s inauguration in 2001, and he watched Bush take the oath of office.

Band leader Jonathan Porter remembers Jeffrey as a quiet, dedicated young man.

“He was a percussionist,” Porter said. “Jeffrey was always there when you needed him and willing to do the extra work to care for the equipment.”

Burgess and several of his friends formed a band called Smash, Porter said. “It was their own version of ‘Stomp,’” he said. “They would use trash can lids, brooms and whatever else was around to make music with.”

Robert O’Day, principal of Plymouth South, remembers Burgess as soft-spoken and dedicated.

“He was a nice kid,” O’Day said. “Quiet, low-key. He was a physical education leader as a senior. Those roles went to students who were dependable and good in phys ed.”

Burgess is the fifth soldier with South Shore connections and at least the 12th Massachusetts resident to die in the war in Iraq.

On Monday, Sgt. Daniel J. Londono, a 2000 graduate of Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree, was buried near his home in Dorchester. He was killed with two other soldiers in an explosion on March 13.

A native of Quincy, National Guard Sgt. Charles Todd Caldwell, died Sept. 1 near Baghdad when a land mine exploded under his Humvee. He was 38.

The first South Shore soldier to die in Iraq, Marine 1st Lt. Brian McPhillips, 25, of Pembroke, was killed while in the forefront of a 100-mile column of American soldiers advancing on Baghdad last April 4, just before the city fell. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for bravery in battle.

Sgt. 1st Class Robert E. Rooney, a former long-time Plymouth resident, died Sept. 25 in an accident in Kuwait as his unit packed up for home.

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As of Friday, 586 U.S. service members and 100 from other members of the allied coalition have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq a year ago, according to the Department of Defense.

Burgess’ cousins, Allan, 11, and Dana, 8, said they will remember their cousin’s bravery and that he died doing what he loved. They also said they will remember how much fun he was to be around, to play video games with and football in the back yard.

Allan said he will always remember that his cousin gave him his drum set. “My first set of sticks were from Jeff,” he said.

Asked whether there were particular things he would miss about his cousin’s personality, Allan thought for a moment and said it is not the specific things he is going to miss.